Tube-chain-driving mechanism for carpet looms



Oct- 21 1924. A 1,512,057

E. H. RYON ET AL TUBE CHAIN DRIVING MECHANISM FOR CARPET LOOMS' Filed Aim. s. 1923 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 1923 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 E. H. RYON ET AL TUBE CHAIN DRIVING MECHANISM FOR CARPET LO OMS Filed Auz. 3.

Dean 21 1924.

N .mmmugummmmull ulli'llmlm m 1 Oct. 21 1924;

E. H. RYON ET AL TUBE CHAIN DRIVING MECHANISM FOR CARPET LOOMS Filed Au 5, 1923 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 Patented Oct. 21, 1924.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

TIPPA H. RYON, OF WALTHAM, ANDEITLLIAM VI. ROBERTSON, O1? WORCESTER, MASSA- CHUSETTS, ASSIGNORS TO CROMPTON & KNOWLES LOO'M WORKS, OF WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS, A CORPORATION OF MASSACHUSETTS.

TUBE-cl-lAIN DRlvING MECHANISll/I FOR- CARPET LOOMS.

Application filed August 3, 1923.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that we, EPPA H. RYON and WILLIAM N. ROBERTSON, said Bron, a citizen of the United States, said ROBERTSON a citizen of Canada, said RYoN residing at Waltham, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, said ROBERTSON residing at Worcester, county of Worcester, and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Tube-Chain-Driving Meche anism for Carpet Looms, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to a carpet loom of the Axminster type in which the pattern is formed on yarn spools from which spools the tuft or pile yarn is drawn for successive insertion in the fabric through a great number of small closely adjacent yarn tubes. The pattern chain for such a loom is made up of a large number of yarn tube frames with yarn spools supported thereon and these parts in the aggregate represent a very substantial weight. For the normal advance movement of such a pattern chain it is 7 customary to provide a continuously operated driving mechanism, while an intermittent feeding mechanism is provided for the slack portion of the chain adjacent the weaving point. In case of a mispick, it is common to turn the intermittently operated or slack portion of the chain backward one or more picks to correct the pattern and it is one important object of our invention to provide auxiliary driving means for turning back the continuously operated portion of the chain without actu ating the operating mechanism of the loom.

Another object of our invention is to provide controlling devices for the regular and auxiliary chain driving mechanism, so constructed that one only of these driving mech anisms can be operatively connected to drive the chain at a given time.

A further object of our invention is to provide a connection by which the slack portion of the chain may also be continuously operated by th auxiliary driving mechanism, this construction being particularly desirable when placing a new pattern chain in a loom.

Serial No. 655,544.

Further featares of our invention relate to arrangements and combinations of parts which will be hereinafter described and more particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

A preferred form of the invention is shown in the drawings in which- Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a loom with our improved chain driving mechanism associated therewith;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged side elevation of the auxiliary driving mechanism;

Fig. 3 is a sectional view of the parts shown in Fig. 2 taken along the line 33 in Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is an enlarged side elevation of the driving mechanism forregularly and continuously operating the tube frame chain;

Fig. 5 is a detail sectional view, taken along the line 55 in Fig. 4;

Fig. 6 is a side elevation of the mechanism for intermittently operating the slack portion of the pattern chain; and

Fig. 7 is a side elevation of a friction device to be described.

Referring particularly to Fig. 1, we have shown portions of a carpet loom including a loom side 10 and a shaft 11 continuously operated through positive gearing from a main motor (not shown) by which the loom is driven. The tube chain 12 is supported on a fixed frame work 13 and is arranged in a series of loops passing over driven pulleys or sprockets 14 and guided in their lower portions by guide-rolls 15. The

sprockets 14 are connected by worm gears 17 to a worm shaft 18 extending the entire length of the frame 13 and connected by bevel gears 19 to an upright shaft 20.

The shaft 20 (Fig. 4) is provided at its lower end with a bevel gear 21 meshing with two idle bevel gears 22 and 23. The gears 22 and 23 rotate freely upon a countershaft 24 which is connected by bevel gears 25 to the drive shaft 11. A clutch collar 26 ,is keyed to the shaft 24 and is slidable thereon to connect the gear 22 or the gear 23 to to the shaft 24. The collar 26 is controlled 16 and worms by a yoke lever 27 (Fig. which is connected b I a link 28 (Fig. 4-), bell crank 29, link 30, ell crank 31 and link 32 to a hand lever 33,. lVhen the lever 33 is in mid-position, the clutch collar 26 rotates freely between the bevel gears 22 and 23 and the tube chain remains at rest. If the lever 33 is moved forward or rearward from mid position, the collar 26 is connected to one or the other of the gears 22 or 23 to drive the tube chain in a desired direction.

At the front portion of the supporting frame 13, a portion 12 of the tube chain 12 passes under two freely movable guiderolls or pulleys and 36 and also around upper idle rolls or sprockets 37, 38 and 39. The middle loop of the slack portion of the chain passes down around a sprocket at which point the tube frames are successively detached from the chain and placed in operative relation with the weaving mechal'liSIJ, each tube frame being thereafter returned to the chain and attached thereto before the chain is again intermittently advanced.

One form of mechanism for intermittently turning the sprocket 40 in either direction is shown in 6 and comprises a pair of arms 4-1 mounted to turn about the axis of the shaft 4-2 on which the sprocket 40 is secured. Ratchet wheels 43 with oppositely disposed teeth are secured to the shaft 42, one only of said wheels being shown in Fig. 6.

Feed pawls l iare pivoted at points 45 on the arms -11 and are permitted to selectively engage the ratchets 43 by a shield or lever 46 pivoted at s7 and angularly movable by a link 418 Fig, t) connected to a lever 49 aounted for movementwith the hand lever When the hand lever is in mid position, .the pawls 4+l are both inoperative and the intermittent feeding mechanism as well as the continuous feeding mechanism is out of action. \"Vhen the hand lever 33 is moved in either direction, one of the pawls a l will be permitted to engage its ratchet wheel 43 and intermittently advance the slack portion of the chain while at the same time a driving connection is made to. the worm shaft for continuously advancing the main portion of the chain in the same direction. For a more complete description of the intermiw tent feedi. mechanism shown in Fig. 6, reference is made to the prior application of H. Ryon, Serial No. 560,211, filed May 11, v 1922.

As has been previously stated, it is sometimes necessary to turn backward the slack portion 12 the pattern chain, commonly as a result of a mispick in the cloth, necessitating the removal of one or more rows of inserted yarn tufts. This is accomplished by placing the lever 33 in mid position and by then turning the slack portion of the the chain may not run freely over the upper "grockets and become too slack on one side or the other of the drivlng sprocket 40.

After the chain has been thus ad usted manually, raising one of the rolls 35 or 36 v and lowering the other, it is desirable that these rolls should be brought back to substantially the same height before the loom is again started in operation. This cannot be readily done through the driving mechanism heretofore described as this mechanism only operates in connection with the drive shaft of the 100111 and it is therefore impossible to adjust the chain without at the same time operating the loom. Accordingly, we have provided auxiliary driving mechanism for thus adjusting the main portion of the chain, this mechanism being best shown in Figs. 2 and 3 andcomprising an auxiliary motor 51 mounted on the upper part of the frame 13 and connected by a pinion 52, gear 53, worm 5 and worm wheel 55 to the worm shaft 18. The worm wheel 55 is loosely mounted on the shaft 18 but is adapted to be connected thereto by a clutch collar 56 keyed to the shaft and slidable thereon by a yoke lever 57 mounted on a fixed pivot 58. A spring 59 (Fig. acts to yieldingly advance the clutch collar 56 to engaging position. cam lever 60 engages a roll 61 on the yoke lever 57 and is provided with two arms 62 and 63 separated by a depression 64-, The cam lever 60 is connected by a link 65 (Fig. 4) tothe bell crank 31 previously de scribed.

When the hand lever 33 is in mid position, the roll 61 is free to enter the depression 6d, permitting the clutch. collar 56 to engage the worm wheel so that the motor. 51 can drive the shaft l8. At this time, both the regular continuous driving mechanism and the intermittent feeding mechanism of the loom are disconnected, If the hand lever 33 is shifted in either direction fronimid position, one of the arms 62 or 63 will engage the roll 61 and withdraw'the clutch collar as indicated in 2. It is accord ingly impossible to connect both the main and auxiliary driving mechanisms to op erate the tube chain at the same time.

The motor 51 is provided with areversing switch 66 in some convenient position by wiich it may be caused to operate in either direction as desired. 7 i

It is sometimes desirable, particularly when inserting a new tube chain in a loom, to be. able to drive the entire chain conas a unit.

tinuously by the auxiliary motor 51. For this purpose, we provide a worm wheel for the idle sprocket 37 and we also provide a worm 71 on the worm shaft'18, which may be moved into or out of driving engagement with the worm wheel 70 and which may be secured in driving engagement with the shaft 18 by set screws 72. When inserting a new chain inthe loom, the worm 71 is moved along the shaft 18 into driving engagement with the worm wheel 70 and is secured in such position for use as long as it is desired to move the entire chain The worm 71 is therefore removed from operative position, leaving the chain with a slack portion 12 as previously described. The connecting chain 50 between the sprockets 37 and 39 is of material advantage when the slack portion 12 of the chain is thus driven continuously, as it maintains all parts in normal relation.

To prevent accidental displacement of the sprocket wheel 40, the friction device shown in Fig. 7 is provided, said device comprising friction arms 7 5 and 7 6 engaging opposite sides of a friction wheel 7 7 on the shaft 42 and held in yielding engagement there with by an adjustable spring 78. A rectangular block 79 is mounted between the arms 75 and 76 and may be turned by a a handle 80 to separate the arms and relieve the friction when desired. It is thus possible .to free the shaft 412 when it is desired to drive the slack portion of the chain continuously through the worm gears 70 and worm 71.

The friction device above described forms no part of our present invention and is fully described and claimed in the patent to Jenckes No. 1,470,007, issued October 9, 1923.

Having thus described our invention and the operation thereof, it will be evident that we have provided improved chain driving means for a carpet loom by which the operation of the loom is simplified and the convenience of operation is much increased.

Although we have disclosed a specific form of our invention, we do not wish to be limited to the details herein disclosed otherwise than as set forth the claims, but what we claim is 1. In carpet loom, loom driving mechanism, a tube chain comprising amain portion and a slack port-ion, connections from said driving mechanism to drive said main portion of said chain continuously,'connections from said mechanism to drive said slack portion of said chain intermittently, and additional auxiliary driving means effective to move said main chain portion in either direction while said loom driving mechanism remains at rest.

2. In a carpet loom, loom driving mechanism, a tubechain comprising a main portion and a slack portion, connections from said driving mechanism to drivesald main portion of said chain continuously, connecsaid driving mechanism to drive said main portion of said chain continuously, connections from said mechanism to drive said slack portion of said chain intermittently, additional auxiliary driving means effective to move said main chain portion in either direction while said loom driving mechanism remains at rest, and a single control device for said continuous driving of mechanism and said auxiliary driving mechanism, said device permitting one only of said driving mechanisms to be operative at a given time.

4. In a carpet loom, loom driving mechanism, a tube. chain comprising a main portion and a slack portion, a positive reversible continuous gear drive from said driving mechanism for said main chain portion, an intermittent reversible drive from said driving mechanism to said slack chain portion, a separate auxiliary reversible driving mechanism for said main chain portion, and means to connect said auxiliary driving mechanism to drive said slack portion also.

5. A chain driving mechanism as set forth in claim 1 in which said slack chain portion is provided with a worm wheel and said auxiliary driving mechanism is provided with a worm movable into and out of operative relation with said worm wheel.

6. A chain driving mechanism as set forth in claim 4 and having a single controlling device effective to render said continuous and said intermittent driving connections both operative or both inoperative and to render said auxiliary driving mechanism simultaneously inoperative or operative.

7. In a carpet loom, in combination, loom driving mechanism, a tube chain comprising a main portion and a slack portion, connections from said loom driving mechanism effective to drive said main portion of said chain continuously, and an additional and separate pawl and ratchet connection from said driving mechanism effective to give. said slack portion of said chain an independent intermittent movement.

8. In a carpet loom, loom driving mechanism, a tube chain comprising a main portion and a slack portion, connections from said driving mechanism to drive said main portion of said chain continuously, connections from said mechanism to drive said slack portion of said chain intermittently, and means 'to move the main portion of said chain forward or backward, relative to said slack portion, While said slack portion is held at rest, thereby restoring the balance of said slack chain portion.

In testimony whereof We have hereunto 10 affixed our signatures.

EPPA RYON. WILLIAM ROBERTSON. 

